Leoni to provide 1300 robots for VW’s MEB platform

Volkswagen awards Leoni, a global provider of energy and data management solutions in the automotive sector and other industries, to equip 1,300 robots with the innovative dress pack solution LSH 3 for the production of electric vehicles on the modular electric platform MEB at the OEM's production site in Zwickau. 100 robots have already been fitted.

At the VW Group's production site in Zwickau, Leoni is fitting robots with the dress pack solution LSH 3 for various bonding methods such as welding, handling, laser bonding, clinching and also adhesive bonding. The project also involves the installation of floor cable harnesses for installing the cabling for the robots or from the stationary tool to the robot control unit.

Installation of the energy supply systems in Zwickau started as early as mid-August – and will be completed for the first vehicle model by the end of 2018. In the course of the next two years, several Volkswagen models are to be produced in Zwickau based on the new MEB platform. The Zwickau site will be dedicated solely to electromobility as of the end of 2020.

The requirements of mechanical, chemical and thermal product properties are extremely high in the field of robotics – the products have to be able to withstand powerful acceleration, compression and torsion, for example, as well as enduring millions of flexing cycles. What is more, they have to be resilient to high temperatures, welding beads, oil and various chemicals.

Leoni claims that the LSH 3 robot reduces one of the most frequent causes of error in robot energy supply systems: collision with interference contours. This advantage, combined with extremely resilient materials and tried-and-tested components, provides great freedom while at the same time allows the dress pack to be ducted closely to the robot arm. After all, a consistent supply of energy and data is absolutely crucial to any industrial process: if certain signals are not transmitted or if the required media are not supplied, this will generally cause the production process as a whole to come to a standstill. Leoni's LSH dress pack solution keeps production facilities productive by ensuring the reliability of cables and system solutions.